DAY TRIP Museum of Jurassic Technology

The Museum of Jurassic Technology is as complex as its name suggests. The museum traces its history to a time when museums combined entertainment and intellectual stimulation. The museum points out this distinction because museums first began as intellectual exhibits based on the scientific method, but later shifted to entertainment exhibits showing phenomena that weren’t based in science.

The museum’s collections represent that philosophy; it has exhibits about the dogs used in the Soviet space program and displays about Los Angeles mobile-home parks.

Simply, the museum is an educational institution that strives for a better understanding of knowledge.

GETTING THERE

Take the 405 Freeway north for about 41 miles. Exit onto the 10 Freeway east toward Los Angeles and follow for about two miles. Take the exit for Robertson Boulevard toward Culver City. Merge onto Exposition Boulevard and then make a sharp right at Venice Boulevard.

For those looking for an alternate route, take the 55 Freeway north and exit onto the 5 Freeway north. Follow the 5 Freeway for about 30 miles. Exit onto the 10 Freeway west and follow for about 11 miles. Exit Robertson Boulevard and turn left at Robertson Boulevard. Turn left at National Boulevard and then right at Venice Boulevard.

HOURS

The museum is open from 2 to 8 p.m. Thursday, and from noon to 6 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The Tula Tea Room and Borzoi Kabinet Theater are open for one hour after the museum’s front desk opens and closes one hour before. During the open hours, complimentary tea and cookies are served, and films screen hourly.

ADMISSION

Suggested donations for the museum are $5 for adults; $3 for children 12 to 21, students, seniors and the unemployed; and $2 for the disabled and active service personnel in uniform. Children younger than 12 get in free. The museum is a not-for-profit organization.

DOGS OF THE SOVIET SPACE PROGRAM

Eleven dogs were sent into space during the Soviet Union’s space program, the last of which was sent March 25, 1961.

The exhibition tells the stories of the dogs that embarked on space journeys in an effort to develop later space travel. The first dog, in fact the first living being to be sent into space, was a canine from the Soviet Union launched in an “artificial moon” in 1957. That dog’s name was Laika. The 11 dogs of the Soviet space program flew in six separate missions between 1957 and 1961.

The last dog sent into space by the Soviet Union was Zvezdochka, who rode Sputnik 10 into the world outside of Earth’s atmosphere.

— Daniel Tedford